The present invention relates to an apparatus for supplying cheese coagulum to an oblong prepressing vat or a similar container, comprising a distributor unit arranged generally crosswise of the longitudinal direction of the container and being reciprocable along the container, with the distributor unit being operable to receive a mixture of whey and cheese coagulum at one or more places along the length of the unit and, via an associated distributor container, to distribute this mixture over the length of the distributor unit in such a manner that the mixture may flow off from the distributor container in a broad, relatively even flow all over the length of the distributor container, which container is equipped with rotating wing rollers for sluicing out the mixture from the receiving place or places to and beyond elongated outlet edge means of the container.
What is endeavoured hereby, is to effect a highly uniform distribution or depositing of the cheese coagulum in the vat, throughout the area thereof, such that it is ensured that the coagulum is laid out with an even thickness, which, later on in the cheese production process, will result in the production of cheese members of equal thickness as required for a still later cutting off of cheese slices of a well defined width. This requirement is pronounced in commercial practice, particularly for the cheeses delivered to restaurants and cheese slice packing enterprises.
The reciprocation movement of the distributor unit along the prepressing vat will serve to ensure an even distribution of the coagulum mixture along the length of the vat, particularly as towards the end of the vat filling process the coagulum contents of the mixture will gradually decrease, when the mixture is delivered from a conventional curdling tank. However, the desired result will not be obtained unless the coagulum distribution is uniform also in the cross direction of the vat, i.e. in the length direction of the distributor unit.
It is difficult to obtain a uniform distribution of the coagulum in that direction, already because the coagulum, which is only slightly heavier than the whey, can move around in the whey in an uncontrolled manner, particularly by turbulence created at the place or places where the mixture is supplied to the distributor.
A principally good solution to this problem has been found to be the use of the wing rollers, which operate to lift the mixture up along a correspondingly arched wall portion of the distributor container from a bottom inlet area to a horizontal overflow edge thereof, whereby the mixture will be trapped temporarily between the consecutive pairs of wings and thus be shielded off from the turbulent mixture adjacent the container bottom before the trapped mixture is lifted over the overflow edge; in this manner the coagulum in the trapped or isolated mixture portions as extending all the way along the distributor container will get the opportunity to fall to rest before being delivered to the vat, and hereby the coagulum tends to distribute itself evenly along the container.
It has then been found, however, that by the passage of coagulum lumps over the overflow edge a build-up of such lumps may occur on the edge itself, whereby the free overflow may be locally obstructed, resulting in groove formations in the laid out coagulum layer in the vat.
It is the purpose of the present invention to provide a distributor apparatus of the type referred to, by which a flow obstructing lump build-up will be practically impossible and according to the invention this is achieved by constructing The apparatus such that wing rollers are mounted so as to engage with each other at an intermediate height level of the distributor container such as, for example, between an upper mixture receiving part of the container and a lower, slot-shaped bottom outlet thereof. The wing rollers are rotatable for sluicing down the mixture along respective opposed part-cylindrical bottom wall portions of the container to a common outlet space or chamber just above the slot-shaped bottom outlet.
Accordingly, the invention departs from the principle of bringing the mixture to an overflow edge, as instead of this it is let out through a bottom outlet slot with a flow intensity determined by the operation speed of the wing rollers; these, still acting to successively trap the mixture portions for a good coagulum distribution therein, will guide the mixture downwardly and inwardly to a delivery space just above the outlet slot, from which the mixture may then fall freely down into the vat. The wings will sweep along the arched container bottom almost entirely down to the respective opposed edges of the outlet slot, such that there will be no area in which the coagulum gets an opportunity to be supported on an underlying surface such as an overflow edge.
In the following the invention is described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawing.